FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi all! Today at our local gardening center I picked up two carnivorous plants: a venus fly trap and some sort of pitcher plant. I normally grow venus fly traps, and i've never grown a pitcher plant before. But to me it seems like its pitchers are pretty dry... The soil is moist, but the traps don't seem like leaves! The seem like paper... is something wrong with them? Plus also... I know nothing about pitcher plants at all pretty much... so any basic tips would be great. Do pitcher plants have to go dormant? If so, how should i do that?

Thank you tons!

Tgplp

The papery feeling could just be the results of being cooped up in a little container for so long, but those effects will eventually go away as it gets more sunlight and such. Where do you live? A city would be nice, because then we could possibly tell you where the best place could be for your new plants. Honestly, my biggest tip is to give it as much sunlight as you possibly can. This promotes rigorous growth, but now that we're getting into the colder months, your plant may slow down and go dormant, if exposed to cold conditions. In my opinion, depriving your plants from going dormant is like preventing a person from sleeping; it will slowly decline in health and eventually die. But, again, city please! That would be greatly helpful.

Hope I was of help!

Thanks Ethan! I live near Seattle, which is in Western Washington, so it is usually overcast. So you are saying that my pitcher plant should go dormant? Do I have to put it outside or anything? I keep my Venus Fly Trap outside and it is dormant. I just take it in when I think it might frost. Is this what I do with my pitcher plant?

thanks for your help! I sure hope my plant outgrows its papery leaves... i'm kinda worried about it. Also, how can you tell when a pitcher plant is dormant?

Oh, by the way, I found a tag on my pitcher plant and it is called a purple pitcher plant, or sarracenia purpurea venosa.

Thanks everyone!

Tgplp

My purps live outside and are going to sleep soon... though its unseasonably warm, the day light is getting way shorter and they are SLOWING down.

I just bought a S. rubra from Lowe's. It's going to skip dormancy this year, but join its purple cousin outside this spring.

These plants like to be wet, especially in the growing season. My purple pitchers sit in water about 1/3 the height of the pot all growing season. Mine are in LFSM.

Dormancy is very easy to pick out in all of my pitcher plants. Most of the pitchers that were growing immediately opened, regardless of how tall they were. All of the pitchers beyond that point grew very slow and small. Small pitchers are a definite sign.

Hope I was of help!

Pics!
Show us pics!

grow them in the same way as vft's